Though there has been some progress in the fight against cancer, minority populations as a whole continue to suffer high rates of cancer morbidity and mortality. Low socio-economic status, education, income, lack of insurance, cultural and linguistic barriers, all play a role in preventing individuals from receiving accessible, affordable, quality health care. Our challenge as public health professionals, will be to reduce, if not eliminate, these racial and ethnic disparities in health status. My goal, therefore, will be to focus on issues of health care access, health insurance coverage, and quality of care with respect to cancer prevention, early detection and treatment as they pertain to socioeconomically, disadvantaged communities.